Oslo residents to vote on 2022 Olympic bid

Oslo inhabitants are to vote on whether they wish to bid to host the 2022 Winter Olympics after the city council on Wednesday voted in favour of bidding.

The referendum will be held on September 9th at the same time as the Norwegian parliamentary elections with a yes vote the favoured outcome.

Oslo has already hosted the Winter Games, in 1952, while Norway also played host to the quadrennial event in Lillehammer in 1994.

Should Oslo go forward as a candidate it is likely to have Scandinavian rivals in Swedish capital Stockholm. Their National Olympic Committee president Stefan Lindeberg told Swedish national press agency TT the city had the required popular support to warrant a bid.

However, the Swedish government has openly queried whether a bid would have any chance of winning, but Lindeberg is adamant there was a case for trying.

"Perhaps this is a unique chance that we have. That alone makes it worth trying," he said.

The withdrawal of Swiss resort St Moritz has left it a wide open race.

Barcelona - who hosted a highly successful 1992 Summer Games - Munich - who were humiliated in the race for the 2018 Games with Korean candidate Pyongchang winning in the first round of voting - and the Polish city of Krakow, who the Poles hope to convince neighbouring Slovakia to be part of the bid, have all indicated an interest in bidding.

The vote by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) members as to hosts the Games will be in August 2015.

Norway said on Tuesday that it wanted to join the China-backed Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank, even though Beijing has snubbed Oslo since the Nobel Peace Prize was awarded to a Chinese dissident.
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